Pluto's just a rock, and that rocks
I, for one, am happy that the International Astronomers’ Union decided to strip Pluto of its designation as a planet.
It isn’t so much the science of the thing, though I agree there, considering that leaving the designation would have required also granting planet status to some decidedly un-planetlike objects kicking around the solar system. And it isn’t merely the subversiveness of the move (Topple the dominant cosmological paradigm! Burn the motherfucker down!), or the fact that opponents were waving plush Pluto the dog toys and bringing sentiment and even kitch into a scientific discussion.
It is that we need these occasional reminders that knowledge is not static, that deeply and widely held beliefs can prove to be wrong.
All your life there have been nine planets. It has been a fact. And now it isn’t. Now you’ll have to learn some new mnemonic (my favorite – My Very Erotic Mate Joyfully Satisfies Unusual Needs Passionately – is an easy edit), and maybe help out at your kid’s school sawing that last arm off all the solar system models.
But, you have been reminded, facts are just falsehoods waiting to be uncovered, and maybe that reminder will bubble up through your subconscious at the right time, when the fact in question really needs subverting.
It isn’t so much the science of the thing, though I agree there, considering that leaving the designation would have required also granting planet status to some decidedly un-planetlike objects kicking around the solar system. And it isn’t merely the subversiveness of the move (Topple the dominant cosmological paradigm! Burn the motherfucker down!), or the fact that opponents were waving plush Pluto the dog toys and bringing sentiment and even kitch into a scientific discussion.
It is that we need these occasional reminders that knowledge is not static, that deeply and widely held beliefs can prove to be wrong.
All your life there have been nine planets. It has been a fact. And now it isn’t. Now you’ll have to learn some new mnemonic (my favorite – My Very Erotic Mate Joyfully Satisfies Unusual Needs Passionately – is an easy edit), and maybe help out at your kid’s school sawing that last arm off all the solar system models.
But, you have been reminded, facts are just falsehoods waiting to be uncovered, and maybe that reminder will bubble up through your subconscious at the right time, when the fact in question really needs subverting.
posted by JJisafool at 7:16 PM
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